BERGISCH GLADBACH (dpa-AFX) - According to a study by industry expert Stefan Bratzel, Chinese car manufacturers have further expanded their leading role in innovation. This group recently accounted for 46 percent of global innovative strength, as his Center of Automotive Management (CAM) announced in Bergisch Gladbach on Thursday. The evaluation includes innovations that are already in series production.

In 2019/20, Chinese car manufacturers still accounted for 21 percent of innovative strength. German car manufacturers fell behind overall: Their innovative strength fell from 45 percent to the current 23 percent over the same period. The competition from China overtook the three German car manufacturers for the first time in the 2022/23 ranking.

CAM has been compiling the report since 2005 and updates it annually. The current results include a good 700 series innovations from 30 groups with more than 100 car brands. The authors evaluate the innovations according to their degree of innovation, customer benefit and originality, among other things. The period currently examined ranges from February 2023 to January 2024.

Five Chinese manufacturers in the top 10 - BMW at the top

According to the data, five Chinese manufacturers are among the top 10 most innovative car manufacturers for the first time. However, the Bavarian manufacturer BMW remains at the top. Among other things, there have been many innovations in automated driving and the range and charging performance of electric cars.

They are followed in the ranking by the Chinese companies Geely and SAIC. They scored particularly well in the technology fields of electromobility, driver assistance systems and operating and display concepts. After Toyota, Mercedes-Benz takes fifth place. The Volkswagen Group, with brands such as VW, Audi and Porsche, landed in 6th place, mainly due to a weakness at Audi and the strength of the competition.

Neither the Opel parent company Stellantis nor the US manufacturers Tesla, GM and Ford are represented among the ten most innovative manufacturers.

Balance of power is shifting towards China

According to study director Bratzel, the industry is currently experiencing a "tectonic shift in the balance of power in favor of Chinese automotive companies". This is increasingly evident in terms of innovative strength. In the future fields of e-mobility, software-defined cars and connectivity, Chinese manufacturers have built up expertise on the basis of which innovative series vehicles are being built at high speed.

This is a challenge for German car manufacturers in particular: "They have to be at least as innovative as they are expensive." Although they were able to increase the number of their innovations by eight percent compared to the same period last year, the number of Chinese innovations increased by 32 percent in the same period. "The pace of innovation development in China is therefore much faster than in Germany," it said./jwe/DP/jha